Does brokerage name really matter? Is the Marcus Millichap name really that bad?
I have been working as a research analyst for a team at Marcus Millichap for the past year. The team has decent deal flow and has around $1B in sales a year for multifamily units. I primarily conduct market research on the submarkets around NYC to generate good sales comparables for the brokers on the team. I also work on a lot of valuation that uses the firm's financial models to calculate fair market value for various multifamily properties.
At the same time, I wanted to see if brokerage name really matters or if the job responsibilities are more important?
I am trying to move over to the acquisitions side and have been looking for a career change lately. Does anyone have any similar experiences or can relate to whether employers would look down on the Marcus Millichap name?
It matters, but mostly in specific business lines like investment sales or debt/equity financing, where having the firepower of additional business verticals and a deep bench of resources (market research, sexy marketing) make a difference. More importantly, though, the local reputation of the specific team you are working on matters most. Every local market has a few random teams that work at a one-off/random brokerage shop that absolutely ton it and have stellar reputations. More often than not, those are leasing brokers.
Thank you for the reply! The broker I work for is considered a top 5 agent/broker in the area for multifamily properties. They don't work on any leasing and I have helped with around $700M in investment sales, 1031 exchanges, and acquisitions this year. I just wanted to see what options I had if I wanted to jump into a more analytical acquisitions role in the future. I believe my specific team has a good reputation in the local market. I think the only thing that worries me is the firm name.
Totally market dependent. Van Der Ahe (sp?) team is full of hitters in that market. Also have a very dominate STNL team - might be top volume team in the country.
Marcus and Millichap is viewed primarily as a non-institutional player that dominates the middle market by most principals. There are exceptions in their IPA group, but their average broker is executing $3-15m assignments, not $25m+ institutional assignments. They have an exceptional sales training program, and focus most of the company energy on selling their services as opposed to developing quality analysis/packages which works great at the level they play at.
You're right! The average broker is only executing around $3-10m deals on the East Coast and I think I'm lucky enough to be on a team that works on larger deals. We work a lot with private investors and we see around 2-3 $30-50m+ deals a month. As a research analyst, I work with underwriting, valuating, and market research for these deals and I wanted to see if this experience was valuable towards moving in acquisitions or development. I'm most worried about the Marcus Millichap name even though the team is strong in investment sales.
That's good size - just put "average sale price of X" on resume to show institutional experience or "majority of assets sold in the X to Y range". Also, getting Argus certified will negate the brand name hit because there seems to be a shortage of plug and play Argus users.
Can't comment on M&M reputation for future roles as I haven't been employed by them. I used to work for JLL which provided some solid exit opportunities on the east coast, so I can probably say that brand name does matter.
But to your last point about transitioning to acquisitions, I think that would be tough coming from a research analyst role. What research are you doing? Macro/micro, market, etc. for the firm overall or a specific deal team? If it is the latter, I would try and get an analyst position on the deal team itself where you are working on live deals. Coming from a role where I had minimal live deal experience, I really had to sell my skills and network into a deal role where I'm at now. I think the same may go for you coming from research, but I could be completely wrong.
Hey Ralph, thanks for the reply! I'm sure you were able to get awesome exit opps when you used to work at JLL. Were you working for a specific deal team or the firm as a whole?
Even though my position name is research analyst, I believe I am more of an investment analyst that uses financial modeling to help underwrite deals, valuate different properties, and research the surrounding markets for good comparables to large investment sales. I'm also sure the broker I work for won't mind me changing the position name since he knows I work with the entirety of the deal process. Sorry if this sounds dumb, but investment sales teams are considered live deal teams right? I've been doing a lot of research lately and would really like to move over to either acquisitions or development. Not sure if making a jump to REPE would also be possible. I wanted to see if a strong local investment sales team from a not so well regarded firm name (M&M) would hinder me from transitioning as easily.
InVino summed up M&M perfectly. They have a niche. It sounds like you’re on a high performing team. You need to relax about the name and have confidence in your experience. HFF on your resume make make things easier, but investment sales is much more about your team than what flag you’re under.
Have confidence in your experience, you’re not at “JT Marlin” or Stratton Oakmont.
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